Robert Redford Urges Letters To Senators To Stop "Drill The
Arctic" Plan

DATE: November 2, 2001

BACKGROUND: Actor Robert Redford has sent an e-mail
to Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) members asking them
to contact their senators about the "pro-oil energy bill"
endorsed by the White House. In his four page letter, dated October
31, Redford claims the Republican energy bill would not only open
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration but also
"pave the ways for energy companies to exploit and destroy
pristine areas of Greater Yellowstone and other gems of our natural
heritage."

TEN SECOND RESPONSE: Now is the time to reduce our dependence
on Middle Eastern oil and we can do it in an environmentally-responsible
way. Opening the Arctic Refuge is prudent and could provide as
many as 735,000 badly-needed jobs.

THIRTY SECOND RESPONSE: National security is of great
importance today and by opening ANWR to oil exploration, we can
help our country become less dependent on foreign oil. Yes, we
can help by conserving but today we import more than half of the
oil we use. It's only wise that we tap into more of our own domestic
supply of oil.

DISCUSSION: Here are some of the claims Redford made
in his letter:

Claim: "It would take ten years to bring Arctic
oil to market and when it arrives it would never equal more than
two percent of all the oil we consume each year."

Response: Yes, it will take several years to bring
the oil to market - all the more reason we should start now.
But according to Interior Secretary Gale Norton in a Washington
Times editorial October 31, 2001, a conservative estimate of
the amount of oil that ANWR would produce is 7.7 billion barrels,
an amount equal to about 20 years of imports from Iraq.

Claim: "We possess a mere 3 percent of the world's
oil reserves, but we consume fully 25 percent of the world's
oil supply."

Answer: No one claimed we could become entirely independent
of imported oil. But ANWR production could potentially replace
half of what we import from all of the Persian Gulf for 36 years
or all of what we import from the Saudis for the next 30 years.
It is wise to reduce some of our dependence to Middle Eastern
countries.

Claim: The Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards
should be raised to 40 miles per gallon from the present 27.5
mpg.

Answer: Apparently, safety isn't the critical issue for
Mr. Redford. Safety and fuel economy are closely linked. The
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) studied the relationship
between size and safety and found in the11 car models that were
downsized since 1977, occupant death rates were higher in 10
of the 11 models after downsizing. New, smaller cars were averaging
23% more deaths than the larger models (for more information
on mileage standards and safety, visit http://www.vehiclechoice.org/cafe/brief/safety.html
).